I have to say I never liked Wesley. He was just a throw-away pathetic geeky kid who was never of any real significance in the show, its quite unsurprising that Wil Wheaton decided to leave. I remember seeing him in the film "Toy Soldiers" years ago and being impressed with his acting ability. On the whole, early TNG episodes were incredibly flawed anyway, more like TOS episodes than anything else. I particularly remember the series 1 episode in which the Traveller (the omnipotent being that eventually took Wesley away) brought the ship outside the universe. Did you know that outside the universe exists pink space?? No, me neither.
As for Wils comments on the war, he is absolutely right. I personally cannot see how there can possibly be any significant military targets left in Iraq. If you bomb a country regularly for 12 years there isn't realistically going to be much left to aim at. Having said that, American foreign policy has always been paranoid and agressive, whereas Clinton put a veil over his actions, Bush has foolishly left his opinions and policies open for all to witness. You must remember that Mikhail Gorbachev wanted all nuclear weapons destroyed by the year 2000. He offered to sign treaties with both Reagan and Bush Snr. banning the possession of nuclear devices, both presidents declined. Then Mikhail Gorbachev declared that whether or not America did, Russia would no longer test any nuclear weapons, America of course did not match the offer, Mikhail Gorbachev stuck by his word. Now Bush has resumed the Star Wars program, all he has done is create the foundations of two Cold Wars, one with Russia, and another with China. It seems that America is determined to create a; to quote Chamberlain; "Iron Curtain" of western belief over the eastern world. In the end there are only three real reasons for a war with Iraq. Primarily, is the issue of depleting oil reserves. The blatant 'dont destoy your own oil fields, they are valuable to Iraq' speech he gave toward the Iraqi people is more than enough evidence of this. The two secondary reasons for war with Iraq are (A) to test the water, so to speak. To see if Russia, China etc will try to stop them, and (B) to save face. This is important after the bodged invasion of Afghanistan, and the failure to get Osama Bin Laden, another man targeted by the American government since the early 90's. What many people are quick to forget is that this is supposed to be a war on terrorism, Saddam Hussein, as tyranical and opressive a leader as he may is not a terrorist. Nobody hass for a second suggested that he was responsible for 9/11, there is still no (non-fabricated) proof that it was even the work of Bin Laden. How long will it be before a token Bin Laden or Hussien character is fashioned by the US, as an excuse to invade more of the world? What is to be next? Possibly the creation of another Hussienesque media figure in nieghbouring Iran, or another in Vietnam? As for Wil's comments on the lies that America uses predominantly as an excuse to go to war, he is correct here to. You only need to read up on
Colin Powell's fabricated speech to see this. His "evidence" that Saddam still had weapons of mass destruction was actually a series of pictures taken from a university thesis that had been posted on the internet, thesis on the first gulf war - 12 years ago. So yes Wil is right. Unfortunatley Wil isn't the one sitting sipping tea, and playing wargames, and being read bedtime stories at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue by the only man with more of a quest for global domination that Bush Jnr, Mr Cheney. Democracy eh, dont you just love it?
